From Forbes, “Intellectual Property: The Secret Sauce of Great Products”

IP is one of the largest margins to monitor business success in today’s Knowledge Economy. Some go as far to call IP “the secret sauce of corporate value creation.” Experts estimate that as much as 80% of the word’s technical knowledge is contained only in patent documents. Here’s some things you can do with it:

Improve your own products and services – Learn about technological breakthroughs disclosed in the patents of other inventors. According to a 2006 study, 88% of US, European and Japanese businesses say they use the information disclosed in patents to keep up with technology advances and direct their own research and development efforts.

Uncover competitors’ product and market strategies – Patent research uncovers intelligence on competitors that sheds light on their product and market strategies.

Do R&D faster and cheaper – Research can also help you speed up your R&D and reduce its cost. 49% of manufacturing and service firms used outside inventions in their own key products and services. Doing this can help you reduce the overall cost of discovering and patenting your own inventions.

Increase margins and profits – According to a study by Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Institute of Technology & Duke, economists found that the patent premium for innovations is substantial. Firms average a 50% premium over those cases without patents.

More articles in this series are forthcoming and we will keep you updated. To read the entire article, click here.